Bill Gates on Microsoft’s 40th birthday: ‘What matters most now is what we do next’

Saturday will mark the 40th anniversary of when Bill Gates and Paul Allen founded the software giant in 1975. To commemorate the occasion, Gates sent out a letter to employees Friday, in which he reflected on the company’s past and future. Tomorrow is a special day: Microsoft’s 40th anniversary.

In the letter, Gates praises CEO Satya Nadella, who he credits with making Microsoft “better positioned than ever to lead” as technology continues to advance. Gates also calls out Cortana, Skype Translator, and HoloLens as “a few of the many innovations that are on the way” under Nadella’s leadership.

Today though, I am thinking much more about Microsoft’s future than its past. I believe computing will evolve faster in the next 10 years than it ever has before. We already live in a multi-platform world, and computing will become even more pervasive. We are nearing the point where computers and robots will be able to see, move, and interact naturally, unlocking many new applications and empowering people even more.

In the coming years, Microsoft has the opportunity to reach even more people and organizations around the world. Technology is still out of reach for many people, because it is complex or expensive, or they simply do not have access. So I hope you will think about what you can do to make the power of technology accessible to everyone, to connect people to each other, and make personal computing available everywhere even as the very notion of what a PC delivers makes its way into all devices. Bill Gates on Microsoft’s 40th birthday: ‘What matters most now is what we do next’